Tom Barnes named ATP supervisor of 2015 Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell

ATP Supervisor Tom Barnes will represent the Association of Tennis Professionals at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell this year. Barnes, who will have ATP's Carlos Sanches on his side, will oversee the entire sporting side of the tournament, such as giving advice on match programming, choice of umpires and the enforcement of the rules of conduct.

The big news in 2015 is that the number of chair umpires will be reduced from eight to five due to the recent modification of the main draw from 56 to 48 players. The chair umpires with gold badge status to attend the ATP World Tour 500 event in Barcelona this season are Carlos Bernardes, Mohamed El Jennati, Ali Nili, Félix Torralba, and Manuel Messina.

There will be five reserve chair umpires, three of them with silver badge status and two with bronze badge status. Spaniards Poncho Ayala, Nacho Forcadell and Jaume Campistol have recently been promoted by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to silver badge status. The two chair umpires with bronze badge status will be announced in the upcoming weeks.

As in previous years, Spain's Javier Moreno will oversee the line judges and ball kids, celebrating his 21st anniversary as chief umpire. The Catalan umpire started to work as linesman in Barcelona and is now set for his 34th tournament at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona.

The Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell will be held at the Real Club Tenis Barcelona 1899 from 18 to 26 April this year. To date, three current Top 10 players have already confirmed their participation, including eight-time Barcelona champion Rafael Nadal, fellow Spaniard David Ferrer, ranked No. 10, and reingning Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell champion, Kei Nishikori.